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Braves’ biggest concern
The Braves have played 33 games, and the sky is far from falling.
It just feels that way.
Part of that is the scorching stretch for the Philadelphia Phillies, who have won seven straight, nine of their last 10 and are 18-3 since Tax Day last month.
Wowser.
Philly leads the Braves by just 3 in the NL East, hardly an abyss considering Atlanta is barely past the 20% mark of the season.
But still, the questions need to be asked, even if the answers do not involve panic.
First, and this is a statement rather than a question, but if the Braves had cut Marcel Ozuna like a lot of folks wanted this time last year when he could hit his butt with either hand, this team would be way closer to 12-21 rather than 21-12.
Ozuna leads the Braves in every major offensive category from average to homers to RBIs to toots in church to cuss words in front of elderly women.
He and Ozzie Albies have received little help with the exception of Jarred Kelenic, who generated more singles than Wendy’s at lunchtime in April, early and an emotional white-hot week from Travis d’Arnaud.
As for questions, well, if the goal is truly the World Series or nothing, the absence of Spencer Strider must be addressed right? And that answer needs to come sooner rather than later since a) Bryce Elder delivers more puss than an acne-riddled teenager, and b) Max Fried can’t pitch everyday.
The Strider hole is made even more glaring by the dynamic starting rotations of the aforementioned Phillies — an NL best 2.52 ERA from its starting pitchers this season — and the Dodgers, who have a team ERA of 3.33 from the rotation and that’s with ace Walker Buehler making his season debut Monday night.
There’s no reason to be overly worried about Ronald Acuña Jr., right? He’s bona fide. He’s a suitor.
Acuña is only hitting .267, but one good week gets him back to where we expect, and it’s truly impossible to expect 40-70 seasons each and every year no matter the Cooperstown-clear skill set Mr. Acuña owns.
The biggest question for this crew is clearly the anomaly that has become Mighty Matt Olson, who is leaving no joy in Snellville because he just struck out again.
It was made even more magnified over the weekend as former Braves slugger Freddie Freeman continued to mash in the No. 3 hole for a Dodgers lineup that is rolling.
Olson’s struggles, in my view, truly look like more than a rocky six-plus weeks.
And “rocky” is being kind.
Olson is Dan Uggla-level struggling right now, and for those Braves who remember the ugly summer of Uggla, you know how deep those depths can reach.
Olson’s numbers are clearly.terrible. He’s 20-for-107 (.187) since April 1 with 32 Ks. Hey Olson’s extreme power — he led the majors in homers and RBIs last year — is going to lead to a lot of Ks, but the method of those Ks is what should really trouble Braves Nation.
Olson’s hitting approach right now looks a lot like Kit Keller in “A League of Their Own” — can’t hit the high fastball and can’t lay off the high fastball.
Olson’s swing has always been long, that’s what generates the power. But now the NL has retooled its book against Olson in year two with Atlanta, and the high fastball has been kryptonite to him.
Turning that around is not an Athopoulos issue or even really a Snitker issue, although at this point moving him somewhere in the lineup other than the 4 hole certainly makes some sense, no?
My first call would be to one Larry “Chipper” Jones and see what the Braves Hall of Fame slugger could hatch in the lab with Olson.
But that’s me.
The season’s only 20% through, and we are a marathon away from the -er months, so the Braves struggles in general do not overly concern me.
Olson’s struggles, however, seem deeper and darker and more dire.
Very good and getting better
So we discussed Monday that Anthony Richardson may be the face of the NBA sooner rather than later.
Can you be the NBA’s alpha playing in Minnesota? Mikkan did, but that was when Spy was filing NBA game stories with carrier pigeons and Morse Code messages back to the home office in Sheboygan.
Well, could we be in a place that the NBA’s best over the next half decade may be in Oklahoma City?
Sure, there was a time when the Thunder had three future Hall of Famers and former MVPs in KD, Russell Westbrook and James Harden on the same roster.
That was assembled through savvy drafting and torn asunder by jealousy and small market realities.
The Thunder — 5-0 in these playoffs after a stifling win over Dallas on Monday — are the 1 seed in the West and future is brighter than the present.
And a large chunk of this was built in one of the savviest, franchise-changing and most one-sided trades since Red Auerbach sent the rights to Joe Barry Carroll to Golden State for some center named Robert Parrish and the draft rights to some lanky fellow from Minnesota named Kevin McHale.
So, facing another wasted year — “Oklahoma, where the losses came sweepin’ down the plains” — the Thunder sent Paul George to the Clippers.
Cleared payroll. Clippers got a bona fide 2. Everyone was happy right?
Well, in retrospect a few years later, the Clippers are probably not as happy as they were with Playoff P and his ever-true injury bug looking hollow compared to what the Thunder netted.
Shai-Gilgeous Alexander was a youngster and part of that deal. Heck, SGA — the former Hamilton Heights and UK wunderkind — for Paul George right now is an extremely lopsided offer, but wait there’s more.
A lot more.
In that July 2019 deal that PG requested, the Thunder also got five first-round picks (more on that in a moment), Danilo Gallinari and the rights to swap picks with the Clippers in 2023 and again in 2025.
The Thunder have turned some of those picks into future picks with fewer lottery protections and used some of the picks to complete their roster.
The haul as it currently looks is this:
Clippers get Paul George.
The Thunder has SGA (an MVP finalist, who is clearly bona fide), Tre Mann (first round 2021 and who is on the roster but gets limited minutes), Jalen Williams (2022 first-rounder from L.A., last year’s rookie-of-the-year runner-up and the Thunder’s third-best player behind SGA and Chet Holmgren), the Clippers’ first-round pick this summer (unprotected) and in 2026 (unprotected), the right to swap first-rounders with the Clippers in 2025, Miami’s first-rounder in 2025 (protected) or in 2026 (unprotected) and Atlanta’s second-rounder in 2025 (in the Gallinari deal.
So the Thunder are good and poised to make an extended run, especially if Luka Doncic’s balky knee continues to slow down the Mavs’ leader.
Can’t spell controversy with out a C(C)
So Caitlin Clark is pretty ubiquitous these days, and with that comes the good and the bad, I suppose.
Heck, I was surprised she did not get a shoutout from the Brady roast over the weekend if we’re being honest.
Two non-basketball and unfortunate stories involving the biggest women’s basketball star since Cheryl Miller over the last 24 hours.
First, Indy Star columnist Gregg Doyel, who had a cringeworthy exchange with Caitlin Clark that was 100% unprofessional (and for which he later apologized) during Clark’s introductory news conference with the Indiana Fever, will not cover the biggest star in Indiana basketball since Reggie Miller, Steve Alford or Jimmy Chitwood this season.
After the exchange Doyel has been barred from the beat by the Star, which assuredly got more than one phone call about the incident.
This comes on the same day that Clark wisely blocked Antonio Brown, the former Steelers’ star wide out who is so far out there now, he needs long distance just to get back to strange, on social media.
Here’s more, including Brown calling Clark Cousin It, which I guess is a reference to her hair and “cracker of the day,” which I am 100% sure is a slur.
Man, haters gonna hate I suppose.
This and that
— This NIL-driven basketball event in Vegas next year will be commonplace for a lot of college sports extravaganzas in the very near future if you ask me.
— Right when you think Chad Kelly, the former Ole Miss gun-slinging QB, has found his niche, Chad Kelly gets in Chad Kelly’s way again. His checkered past with incidents of all forms added another line item as last year’s most outstanding player in the CFL has been suspended at least nine games after a former strength coach has filed suit against player and his Toronto team. Here’s more, and while the details are foggy, this line really opens the realm of possibilities for some series issues: “Kelly will be required to undergo confidential assessments by an independent expert and attend mandatory counselling sessions conducted by a gender-based violence expert.”
— Right when you think this world can’t get much sicker, this story hits the wire. A woman in India is accused of throwing her disabled 6-year-old into a canal to be eaten by crocodiles. Heaven help us.
— Yikes, are they really considering “Speed 3” people? The original was fun in its “so bad it’s good” kinda way. “Speed 2” was closer to “Caddyshack 2” than “Godfather II,” and while I have not been privy to every conversation about pop culture ever, does anyone know anyone anywhere who has ever muttered, “Man, you know what we need? ‘Speed 3.'”
Today’s question
Which Way Wednesday starts this way:
Which movie out there would you be completely on board for a sequel all these many years later?
Which NBA deal not mentioned above do you think of when the phrase “one-sided trades” is mentioned?
Which will be Matt Olson’s final batting average this season?
— < .225
— .225-.250
— .250-.275
— > .275
You know the drill. Answer some T or Fs, ask some T or Fs.
As for today, May 8, let’s review.
The first Coca-Cola (yes, with cocaine in it) was sold in Atlanta on this day in 1886.
Rushmore of soft drinks other than the direct Coke linage as in Diet Coke, Cherry Coke, etc.?
Go.